Return to Marine Biololgy

Chapter 5

Prokaryotes
Bacteria/Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)
Here is a good page

Unicellular Algae
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Diatoms
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Dinoflagelattes
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Zooxanthellae
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Protozoans (unicellular and animal-like)

Foraminiferans

Radiolarians

Ciliates
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Rotifers - (very small animals/not a protist) are multicellular animals less than 1000 cells
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Seaweeds or Multicellular Algae or Macrophytes

• are protists, not plants
• have spores instead of seeds
• don't have flowers
• lack true leaves, stems, and roots of the higher plants

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/algae1.htm
Structure:

• complete body – thallus
• leaf-like flattened portions – blades
• stem-like structures – stipe
• structures that look like roots – holdfast
• gas filled bladders - pneumatocycts

Classifications of Algae:
Based on the different types of Chlorophyll

Green Algae:

• Sea lettuce and dead man's fingers
• has the same type of chlorophyll as true plants
• have cellulose cell walls
• few marine species, but these can be abundant

http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/seaweeds/Chlorophyta.html

Brown Algae:

• kelps and rockweeds
• green and brown chlorophylls
• biggest and most complex
• found in the Sargasso Sea
• source of algin an emulsifier

http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/seaweeds/Phaeophyta.html

Red Algae:

• Irish moss and porphyra (nori)
• red pigment (phycobilins) mask color of chlorophyll
• live the deepest
• largest group
• some help in coral building
• source of agar and carrageenan, both of which are emulsifiers

http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/seaweeds/Rhodophyta.html